You need a good pair of running shoes to keep up with Krissan Veerasingam. He helped launch the Scarborough Repair Café where residents can bring a multitude of household items for repair, free of charge. He is also an advocate for public transit and supports numerous environmental initiatives. As if this wasn't enough, he finds time to promote ethnic grocery stores and restaurants throughout Scarborough. And he does all this will great enthusiasm and aplomb. Residents are fortunate to have him in their corner.
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Krissan reflects, “If you're from a well-connected or from a well-to-do neighbourhood or family, you're going to get professional photos taken throughout the course of your life, just by you existing in that family. Here, you might not even get a haircut. I didn't get a haircut from a professional barber until I was 23, and there's a lot of youth like that in this community.”
“In Toronto, youth unemployment is at 20 per cent and if it’s 20 per cent in Toronto, it’s much worse in Scarborough just because of racism and employment discrimination as it exists,” Krissan Veerasingam said. “We want to see not just Conrad’s providing these opportunities, but also the government has to step up and provide these opportunities as well, because it’s such a systemic issue.”
Veerasingam says the interim bus lanes implemented by the city are a “Band-Aid solution,” and that a transit line like the Eglinton East LRT would require financial backing from the province and the federal government. “When we don't prioritize these projects that serve the most underserved people in our community, the effect is felt wider than just this transit project,” said Veerasingam.
When neighbors come to these shared spaces and meet each other, real change starts, he says. “If you don’t know your neighbor, how are you going to change the space around you?